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Chris Page

Floatplanes Faster Than Landplanes!

Southend-on-Sea, Essex -- (ReleaseWire) -- 11/26/2013 --Over 80 years ago a spectacular aviation competition was held with international interest from America, Britain, Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Spain and Switzerland, with throngs of onlookers choking the seafronts to glimpse these most beautiful and curious flying wonders!

The competition, to which these crowds of anywhere up to 1,000,000 strong would flock to see a part of history, was for an all-round accomplished vehicle - an aircraft that could survive on the water and in the air, for these races were a unique and thrilling series purely between seagoing planes!

The impact this short lived series of races had is clear; technical advances in arial manoeuvring, speed, water landing and studies in centrifugal forces - with research and training reports, then in the early 1920s, documenting how these high speeds could affect the pilots with up to 7.8g! (To put the bravery of these men into context; the gees recorded on re-entry within the Apollo 16 module was 7.2g - the pilots needed to figure out and practice how to cope with cornering at high speed so as to not lose time) and then there was the added dangers associated with any unique prototype ‘radiator on wings’ aircraft; extreme temperatures and melting engines.

Speeds increased 7 fold from 45mph, up to 340 mph (the fastest speed flown by man at the time - and only one of the many records broken throughout the duration of the races), by dare-devil pilots who would frequently push their crafts to the limit, with records showing they drove these machines to within 3% absolute maximum capable speed!

Some of aviation’s most colourful characters including Jimmy Doolittle, Harry Hawker, Howard Pixton and Henri Biard vied to win three campaigns consecutively to keep the prestigious Art Nouveau ‘Spirit of Flight’ trophy.

Had the rate of development in aviation technology continued at the same pace as during this competition, we would have seen planes racing at over 2400mph today!

So the Jacques Schneider races, initiated with the intention of developing passenger carrying aircraft, ended up planes that would win world speed records and later change the tide of war.

This is the story of the ‘Schneider Trophy’ races, presented in the most engaging visual way with unique illustrations and diagrams; the information amassed into what we believe has the potential become one of the most comprehensive documents on the topic, and certainly one of the most visually engaging as it is illustrated throughout.

We have written the book, we now seeking crowd-backing to bring the first edition to print.